BMF CP137: From Social Recognition to Personal Meaning: The Role of Environmental Awareness and Nature Connectedness

Minh-Phuong Thi Duong

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ton Duc Thang University

“By natural order, birthing needs good timing and at a moderate pace. […] Looking for food in the fields and gardens farther from home is important. Also, try eating different kinds of nuts and worms. Mastering all of this would guarantee a prosperous life.”

—In “Food”; Wild Wise Weird (2025)

1. Project description

This study investigates whether environmental awareness is associated with the societal–personal valuation gap of soil ecosystem services and whether this relationship is moderated by nature connectedness (INS). The societal–personal valuation gap refers to the difference between how important individuals perceive soil ecosystem services to be for society and how important they perceive these services to be for themselves. From the Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) perspective, this gap is interpreted as an indicator of the degree of alignment between societal and personal evaluations of soil ecosystem services.

1.1 Main objectives

The current study addresses the following research questions:

• RQ1. How is environmental awareness associated with the societal–personal valuation gap of soil ecosystem services?
• RQ2. How is nature connectedness (INS) associated with the societal–personal valuation gap of soil ecosystem services?
• RQ3. Does nature connectedness moderate the association between environmental awareness and the societal–personal valuation gap of soil ecosystem services?

1.2 Materials

The Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) will be employed for the conceptual development and statistical analysis of this study [1–4]. The dataset comprises responses from approximately 1,500 German citizens surveyed online in 2021 and includes measures of environmental awareness, nature connectedness (INS), and perceived personal and societal importance of soil ecosystem services [5].

The outcome variable is the societal–personal valuation gap, calculated as the difference between respondents' perceived societal importance and perceived personal importance of four soil ecosystem services (climate regulation, drought protection, flood protection, and clean drinking water). Statistical analyses will be conducted using the bayesvl R package, which employs Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation.

1.3 Main findings (Preliminary)

Preliminary findings indicate that environmental awareness and nature connectedness are both negatively associated with the societal–personal valuation gap of soil ecosystem services. The moderation analysis further suggests that the association between environmental awareness and the valuation gap varies across levels of nature connectedness (see Figure 1).

This study suggests that environmental awareness alone may not be sufficient to reduce the societal–personal valuation gap of soil ecosystem services. Nature connectedness appears to influence how environmental awareness is associated with this valuation gap.



Figure 1. The estimated posterior distributions with 95% credible intervals.

If you have further inquiries, please contact us at aisdl_team@mindsponge.info

If you have been invited to join the project by an AISDL member, you are still encouraged to follow the above formal steps. All the resources for conducting and writing the research manuscript will be distributed upon project participation.

Mentor for this project: Minh-Phuong Thi Duong.

Other members who have joined this project: Minh-Hoang Nguyen and Quan-Hoang Vuong.

The research project strictly adheres to scientific integrity standards, including authorship rights and obligations, without incurring an economic burden at participants’ expenses.

References

[1] Vuong QH, Nguyen MH (2025). Developing Bayesian probabilistic reasoning capacity in HSS disciplines: Qualitative evaluation on bayesvl and BMF analytics for ECRs. https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/397326/3/wp25008.pdf

[2] Vuong, Q. H. (2026). The Optimal Retort. http://books.google.com/books/about?id=HhH2EQAAQBAJ

[3] Nguyen, M. H. (2026). The Half-Woven Screen. http://books.google.com/books/about?id=2BD2EQAAQBAJ

[4] Vuong QH, Nguyen MH, La VP. (2022). The mindsponge and BMF analytics for innovative thinking in social sciences and humanities. Walter de Gruyter GmbH. https://books.google.com/books?id=EGeEEAAAQBAJ

[5] Bartkowski B, Massenberg JR, & Lienhoop N. (2022). Data on public preferences for soil-based ecosystem services in Germany. Data in Brief, 43, 108371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2022.108371